‘Across the barricades’ on thenational.ae

Zenica – Ciro Blazevic waited and waited, and several minutes after his Bosnia team had taken the field against Turkey on Wednesday, he emerged from the tunnel, dressed incongruously in a bright white jacket over black shirt and trousers, as though he had just popped in on his way home from a night out.

Instantly, the chant of “Ciro, Ciro” went up, and as he walked round the pitch to the bench he milked it, waving and clapping, raising an already febrile atmosphere to an extraordinary pitch. Blazevic deserves the acclaim. Even on footballing grounds, what he has achieved is remarkable. Although Bosnia conceded to Emre Belozoglu after four minutes, they hit back through Sejad Salihovic’s superb free-kick to draw a pulsating game 1-1, and so retain a four-point lead over Turkey with two games remaining in their World Cup qualifying group.